Description: CD player with 28-function remote control, optional plug-in digital output, dual 18-bit DACs, and 8x-oversampling digital filter. Frequency response: 5Hz–22kHz, +0, –0.5dB. Dynamic range: 106dB. S/N ratio: 103dB. Channel separation: 91dB. Output impedance: 200 ohms. THD at 1kHz: 0.01%.
Dimensions: 19" W by 4" H by 12.25" D. Weight: 10lb.
Serial number of unit auditioned: 00813.
Price: $1295 (1991); no longer available (2020). Optional factory- or dealer-installed coaxial digital out: $95 (1991). Approximate number of dealers: 95.
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Sidebar 4: Specifications
"The data lords are gathering data and giving it to organizations that then manipulate us with the things they know about us, things that we don't even know about ourselves," says five-time Grammy Award–winning composer, conductor, producer, and band leader Maria Schneider. "They give our data to any company that'll pay for it to manipulate you, specifically targeting your vulnerabilities. It takes away freedom of thought, a true discourse where people are thinking for themselves. Count me out."
The Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra's new double album, Data Lords (ArtistShare), addresses…
Micallef: You had considerable challenges in completing the record.
Schneider: It's superchallenging taking a big band, with music that's very dense and full and coming from all these different sources, and you've got to figure out a way to make that experience come out of two speakers. That is just exceedingly difficult. Every move that you make—say you want a solo to be a little bit louder—everything's relative. Trying to find that balance of focus: If you bring out more bottom, suddenly you lose the top.
Doing an album that is so intense and trying to keep the perspective of…
Once upon a time, reviews of Musical Fidelity components frequently filled pages in Stereophile. But in all my years covering audio shows, I can't recall blogging about any of the company's products, not even once. So, when my editor offered a review of the new M8xi ($6490), a hefty 101lb dual-mono integrated amplifier that includes a DAC, I seized the opportunity to fill a black hole in my consciousness. (Kindly cast aside thoughts that it would take more than a hunk of audio equipment to fill the black hole in my brain.) As long as I didn't break my back lifting the M8xi, solo, to the top…
Once the M8xi had been hoisted, with assistance, onto my rack, I did some thinking about power conditioning. I'd already inquired about the use of a power conditioner and received an email that said that while Musical Fidelity had striven to build "a power supply with very low internal impedance in order to achieve maximum possible dynamics," conditioners that didn't limit current and squash dynamics could possibly improve things further. After listening and comparing, I opted for the same AudioQuest Niagara 5000 I use with the Progressions. I also used the same Ansuz Darkz T2S support feet…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Class-AB integrated amplifier with D/A converter. Analog inputs: 4 pairs RCA (line), 2 pairs XLR (line). Digital inputs: S/ PDIF RCA up to 24/192 (2), TosLink up to 24/96 (2), USB-B asynchronous up to 24/192. Analog outputs: RCA line fixed (2), RCA pre-out variable, XLR pre-out variable. Digital outputs: S/PDIF: RCA up to 24/192, TosLink up to 24/96. Output power: 550Wpc into 8 ohms (27.4dBW), 870Wpc into 4 ohms (26.4dBW). Maximum output voltage: 67V RMS, 10Hz–20kHz; onset of clipping, 190V peak-to-peak. Maximum peak output current: 105A. Maximum…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: dCS Rossini DAC, Clock, and Network Bridge; Weiss DAC502; Synology 1019+ NAS; Roon Nucleus+ music server with HDPlex 200 linear power supply; Uptone Audio etherRegen, Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModule, TP-Link gigabit Ethernet media converters plus multimode duplex fiber optic cable (2), Linksys routers (2); Small Green Computer linear power supply and Small Green Computer/HDPlex four-component 200W linear power supply (3); external hard drives, SSD USB sticks, iPad Pro.
Power amplifiers: Dan D'Agostino Master Systems…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I tested the Musical Fidelity M8xi with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). I first preconditioned the amplifier by following the CEA's recommendation of operating it at one-eighth the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the top panel was very warm, at 109.6°F (43.1°C) and the heatsinks were too hot to touch, at 162.1°F (72.3°C). I then started performing my usual thermal stress test by running the amplifier at one-third power into 8 ohms for an hour. However, I cut the test short after 20…
Herb Reichert wrote about the Yamaha A-S3200 in November 2020 (Vol.43 No.11):
The Yamaha A-S3200 is a strikingly beautiful, all-analog integrated amplifier. When switched on, it gives off a brilliant, slightly warm light from its dual glass-fronted VU/Watt meters. Looking at it makes me feel good but also reminds me how much of a baby boomer I really am.
The A-S3200's sleek, knob-and-switch–lined silver faceplate triggered clear-as-yesterday memories of my youth reading Audio, Stereo Review, and High Fidelity magazines, then going to J&R Music on Park Row here in New York City…
Measurements, from November 2020 (Vol.43 No.11)
In his September 2020 Gramophone Dreams, Herb Reichert reported on two D/A processors from Chinese manufacturer Denafrips: their flagship Terminator, which costs $4498, and their least expensive model, the Ares II ($768). Like the Holo Audio May (Level 3 version, $4998), which Herb reviewed in August 2020 and which I wrote about in September 2020, the Denafrips converters employ R-2R D/A conversion schemes. Both offer two oversampling modes—OS Slow and OS Sharp—as well as a NOS (NonOverSampling) mode.
HR was impressed by the…